Let me invite you to take your Bibles this morning, go to Romans chapter seven, please. Romans chapter seven. There are three, I think, three core principles to interpreting the Bible. And I put them in ways that I can remember, so hopefully they'll be memorable for you. All right, the first simple is, it means what it says. When you're reading the Bible or listening to the Bible, the message is actually in the words of Scripture. We're not actually looking at it, then trying to find some meaning out here somewhere. It's actually in the words as the author used them. So we try to define terms, we try to understand how they relate to one another, What's the way in which it's communicating its message? It's not even a grab bag of words you just pull out. It's actually written so you can follow it. You understand what the words say, and therefore you can find the meaning. You can't actually find the meaning apart from the words of Scripture. It is actually the words that are God's words. The second principle is related to that, and that is it means what it meant. So the writer of scripture wrote it at a particular time and in a particular place, and it had meaning then. So you look for the meaning it had when it was written, not something later. I'll just give you an illustration. The passage we looked at last week, some people interpreted as Paul talking about his bar mitzvah, the place where he comes under the law. The problem is, bar mitzvahs didn't start until the Middle Ages. So Paul couldn't have been writing about his bar mitzvah since they didn't have bar mitzvahs. Now, he might have been saying something about, I wasn't under the law and I'm under the law, but that would be a case in which someone takes something that's way after the Bible and reads it back into the Bible. Instead of saying, it means what the author meant when he wrote it. The meaning of the words are what the words meant when he said them, not some later date. Right? So, you know, if you maybe go back 150 years and saw something really nice, you wouldn't go, wow, that's cool. I mean, people think it's temperature is low because cool didn't start to mean something like neat until much later than that. Right? The fact is the words can change over time. So you find out what they meant at the time they were written, as the author intended it to be, because that's where the message is. The meanings in the words, it means what it meant. And then the third one is this, is it means what God meant. Because behind every author of scripture is actually God. So when you take the Bible as a whole, it has a unified message that never contradicts itself. Because God is the one who gave the words to Moses, to Samuel, to David, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Matthew, to Paul, to Luke. So actually, God superintended the writing of Scripture so that it actually has a unified message that is non-contradictory. So those three simple ways of saying it are sometimes what's called the grammatical, historical, theological interpretation of Scripture. That is, it's in the words, grammatical, as they were used at the time they were written, historical, and within the context of the Bible, theological. It's actually that third part of it which makes our passage so tough. I said last week, it's a very difficult passage. And the reason it is, is because it is saying things that have theological significance about the Christian life. And when you go to understand this portion of the scripture, you have to understand it in relationship to all the other passages of scripture that talk about the Christian life. And sometimes you wrestle with how they all fit together. I mean, I'll just tip where we'll go, right? In chapter six, he says, we've been freed from sin. In chapter seven, verse 14, he says, I'm a flesh sold into bondage to sin. What are you saying, Paul? Right, and so that leads people to go, well, the I in Romans seven is Paul writing as an unbeliever. But then he says some things that certainly can't apply to an unbeliever, it seems like. So it's like, well, it's Paul writing as a believer, but, see, and that's where it gets to be challenging, because you have all of these doctrinal issues that intertwine. So, and I hope this doesn't sound like whining, the challenge with a passage like this is not just understanding it, but preaching it understandably. Right, so I have to find a way to condense all of that into a way that we can look at it. So my guess is we're gonna spend two Sundays on it, okay? Who knows, maybe a miracle happened and I'll get all through it in one. But I'm not banking on miracles, I'm a cessationist here. So the reality of it is, we're gonna work our way through this passage, but we have to think about it the way that that is. Let me just start, Big picture again, bring it why it's so important to understand that in relationship. All right, the gospel is clear, absolutely clear that no one will be justified by the works of the law, chapter three, verse 20. And in fact, that the righteousness that we need to be accepted by God comes apart from the law, right? So that's the gospel. I mean, if you're gonna try to stand before God and be accepted before him on the basis of the works of the law, you will fail, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. What we need is a righteousness that is given to us on the basis of faith, not on the basis of works. That's the heart of the gospel in Romans chapter three, verses 20 and following. And Paul's writing to a group of people that he's actually never met, the church at Rome, because he plans to pass through Rome on his way to Spain. And he wants to establish a relationship with them so he can minister to them and actually so that he can benefit from their ministry. He says in chapter 15, you can help send me on my way to Spain. All right, so he's writing, and he's wanting to get them unified in the gospel, and he knows there's certain tensions connected to this issue of gospel and law, because chapter 14 and 15 deal with it. Some of you think you can eat, some of you don't think you can eat, some of you watch it, observe a day, others of you don't. Right? Who's righteous before God? Is it those who keep the law or is actually the work of God in the heart? He's dealing with all these issues because in the church at Rome are Jewish believers and Gentiles and Paul's wanting to see them be united in their commitment to the gospel and the potential wedge between them is the law, the keeping of the law. What role does the law play, not just in salvation, that is justification, I should say, but also sanctification, the rule of life for us. And what Paul is making the case is, is there are not two ways to be justified. There's only one, by faith, not works of the law. But also there are not two ways to grow in Christ. as if if you're a Jewish believer, you groan Christ by keeping the law, and if you're a Gentile believer, you groan Christ by not keeping the law. He's actually saying, we're free from the law. We've been released from the law. We're not under law, we're under grace. There's only one way of salvation, one way of sanctification, and that's found in Christ, and it's not found by the law. Well, imagine you're a Jewish believer. You've never met Paul. You're receiving this letter. That might not strike you as an attractive message. And Paul knows that. That's why Paul's writing the way he's writing. And that's why, actually, I would suggest he shifts to this I language. because he's trying to make a point about himself that actually has broader ramifications, but sometimes you and I do that when we're gonna tell somebody what news they might not really wanna hear. We'll say something, well, listen, this is the way it works in my life, and we paint it out so that we can help them see that it's actually true in their lives too. And that's a part of what Paul is doing here as he works through it. What he has said up to this point we've looked at is that the law simply can't do what some people are trying to make it do. It's not possible to have life through the law. The law isn't the problem though, the problem is sin. The law actually is good and holy and righteous. All right, in 7 through 11, we looked at last week, the law is not the problem, 7 and 12, sin is. Right, because the law has come from God. It isn't sinful, verse seven. It is actually holy. Commandment is holy, righteous, and good. The problem is sin. What the law does, though, is expose sin. It helps us identify what it is, but it also exposes it in us. Right, so it's not just that, well, the law says that's sin, It does that. But also, when I see that the law declares that it's sin, and then I see it actually in me, right? My autonomy, my rebellion against God, my love for things other than God, autonomy and idolatry, is actually confronted by the law. It exposes the problem within me because it exposes the sinful desires of my heart and it confronts me on that. Verses seven and eight tell us that. And then he says, sin causes death as a consequence of the law. Look at verses nine and 10. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died. And this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death in me. And then look at verse 13, which we didn't consider last week. Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be. Rather, it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin, by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. Here's the point, right? He starts in saying, the law told me not to covet and exposed to me the sinful desires of my heart. It provoked coveting. Not because the law's a problem, but because of the sin in me. So it exposed my desires to rule my life and have what I want. But also, the law came along and its relationship with sin, and here Paul uses really careful logic. He says, it resulted in my death. Verse 10, but then he comes in verse 13 and says, did the law cause my death? And he says, no, it was sin that caused my death, right? And so you're like, okay, so my death resulted because of the law, but it wasn't caused by the law, it was actually caused by sin. but it helps us see that the law is good, but sin is exposed in both our desires and in the death that is caused because of it. This might not be a good analogy, but think with me for just a second. So, sin, law, and death. Sin is the cause, Death is the result of the law. And here's why you think it might not be good. Think me, food, and weight. The result of me eating too much food is I would gain weight. But in this case, the food doesn't have an independent action. I'm the person that's eating too much. So I'm the cause of the problem. The food is actually the cause of the problem. The outcome results from my misuse of it. All right, so now think sin, the law, and death. My death happens as a result of the law, but it wasn't the law that caused it, sin actually caused it. That's his point. He's making a distinction between sin and the law because the law is holy. The commandment is holy and righteous and good. And actually look in verse 13, therefore did that which is good, he's referring to the law, becomes a cause of death for me. No, may it never be. rather it was sin. And again, it's the law exposing the true character of sin in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, right? Because think about it, food's good. 1 Timothy 4 says it's from God to be received with thanksgiving. So if I abuse it, the problem isn't the food, it's me. The law is good, but sin takes that which is good and effects death. And that exposes what sin is like. In fact, look at the end of verse 13. It says, "...so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful." And the point there, I think, is for us to see the absolute ugliness of sin, the true nature of sin. Because sin is so evil, it can take what is good and use it to accomplish death. But Paul wants to be clear that the problem, if I could say it again, is not the law, The problem is sin, right? That's what we have to recognize because the law is good, the law is holy, the law is righteous. The commandment is a gift from God, right? And so that's the first part of what he's arguing. And he's actually arguing it sort of in a historical kind of frame because the verbs in verses 7 through 11 are all in the past tense. And I think he does that to echo the experience of Adam coming under the consequence of disobeying the command of God. God had given them a command not to eat, they desired the thing they weren't supposed to have, and when they took it, it resulted in death. And so Paul's showing that same kind of parallel in his own personal experience about the goodness of God's command, but the deadliness of sin and desire to do something other than what God has commanded. All right, so the law is good, sin is not, it's evil. But that sort of leads to a second kind of question, which is where the most complex part of the chapter comes, and that is, so where's the power of this whole process? I mean, is it actually, is the power of sin found in the law? Right, because, Here's the equation. The law says don't do it, and it provokes in me a desire to do it. So is that animating, intensifying power a problem in the law, that it provokes this in me? And Paul answers that in verses 14 through 25, and we'll start our way through it. But the best way to start our way through it is to read it, right? Because the meaning's in the words. So let's hear what God says. Chapter 7, verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the law, confessing that the law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle or law that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner person, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh, the law of sin. All right, so here we again find, in Paul's playing it out, sort of, if I could put it this way, three actors. There's the law, there's sin, and there's me. All right, so those three things are sort of circling around each other in this passage. Verse 14 is really, it really actually is sort of like a topic sentence for what's gonna follow. He's really sort of laying out the principle that the rest of it is what we have to interact with. So let's look at verse 14. I want to just sort of show you that Paul's basic principle here is that the power of sin is not in the law, but in my flesh. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. So you go back to that question, so what's the energizing power in the conflict between us, the law, and sin? Is it in the law? He's saying no, right? The law is spiritual, but I am of flesh. All right, so the power of sin is not in the law in this passage, it's actually in my flesh. All right, when he says there, we know, it's basically what he's saying is this is just like an axiom. Like if I said to you, we know whatever goes up must come down. Right, I'm just making an assumption that we all agree with gravity. I'm not actually trying to prove it at that point. I'm just saying this is a basic axiom, and here's the basic axiom that Paul says. The law is spiritual, but I'm a flesh. Right, this is just, this is the way it is in terms of human existence. God's law is spiritual. I'm of flesh. And we need to take a few moments and think about those kinds of components. The first law is spiritual. I think what he's meaning here is that that corresponds to the holy, righteous, and good. Right, so he's used holy, righteous, and good to describe the law. He uses spiritual now, and I think he does so for two reasons. One is to talk about a sorcerer origin that comes from God. Right, so the law is something that's been given to us from God. It has that inherent spiritual capacity to it. He's not meaning it's like mystical. He's not meaning it's like you can't see it. He's meaning this is something that has a relationship to God. It partakes of the character of God. It's spiritual in that regard. And he does it, to give that kind of clear orientation to God, but also, I think, to set it in contrast to what he's going to say about himself, right? The law is spiritual. I am fleshly, or sometimes you could translate this word carnal, right? I am made of flesh. I am of flesh. And so he's making a distinction between himself and the law in that regard. And here is one of these times where we're gonna have to look around at a couple of different verses to understand what's going on when he says, I am of flesh. Because it's very important when you read, remember it's the means in the word, when you read through these two chapters, seven and eight particular, but in light of six, that he is not using, he's using phrases, if I could put it this way, of flesh, he's using very differently than in the flesh, right? Because in the flesh is a description of the lost condition. And let me show you that, look back to chapter seven in verse five. for while we were in the flesh. And we saw when we looked at that, that that was in contrast to verse four. They were made to die to the law through the body of Christ to be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead. All right, so he's saying you have had something happen, you were made to die to the law, but verse five points back for while you were in the flesh. So in the flesh is prior to them having died to the law, and also verse six, but now having been released from the law. All right, so in the flesh, meant that you were pre-conversion, pre-being in Christ. Look at chapter 8, verses 9 and 10, because this is, I think as well, sort of seals it. All right, 9, 8, 9. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Okay, so here's, remember, we think Paul's not like a crazy man. So when he says in chapter seven, I am of flesh, And chapter 8 says, you are not in the flesh. He must mean two different things. And in fact, in 7.5, when he talks about while you were in the flesh, he's talking about something different than what he's saying in 7.14, I am of flesh. All right, being of flesh or fleshly in the sense that he's talking about it is different than being in the flesh. In fact, the of part, he makes clear in the rest of this particular passage what he's talking about. It's tied to bodily existence. Look again in the passage we read, look at verse 23. I see a different law in the members of my body. Also in verse 23, he says, the law of sin, which is in my members. Look at verse 24, who will set me free from the body of this death? Okay, he talks about in verse 25, with his mind, he's serving the law of God, but then the verse, but on the other with my flesh, the law of sin. All right, so if you're reading along, you quickly can identify that what Paul says of flesh is the same as having members of his body, the members of his body in his flesh, the body of this death. All right, and look down to 810. I didn't read it a minute ago, but wanted to save it for here. Look what Paul says in 810. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. What can you and I safely conclude dead does not mean in that verse? physically dead, right? Because if he's writing a letter to a bunch of physically dead people, they wouldn't be reading it. So the dead there must mean something else about their body. And the contrast is the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. So Paul's giving us a picture of human existence in which the spirit is alive, but the body is dead. Right? And that gives us a window into what he's talking about in chapter seven, when he says, I'm a flesh, or there's a war in the members of my body. There's a principle in my members, the body of this death. So with my mind, that's the spirit that's alive. With my mind, I serve the law of God, but in my flesh, right? There's another law working. So Paul's talking here about, if I could put it this way, the human condition, when he talks about of flesh. He's not actually talking about a relationship to God that's missing when he says in the flesh. If you're in the flesh, the Spirit of God doesn't dwell in you, and if the Spirit of God doesn't dwell in you, then you're not Christ. He's talking there relationally to God. In the flesh is to be cut off from God, because the Spirit of God does not dwell in you. But if you have become alive in the Spirit, then you are, in fact, in relationship to God. You're not any longer in the flesh, you're in the spirit. But here's the tough part. We're in the spirit, but we're still fleshly. We still are of flesh. We still have a body which is affected by the fall. we are still a part of the curse. And that has its beachhead in our bodily existence. I don't think he's saying the flesh is exactly the body because he says the flesh is waging war in my members. So the flesh principle, the principle of sin has as its beachhead in a person the physical existence we have. In fact, we clearly don't think that it is some kind of, if I could put it this way, some kind of pagan Greek dualism. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying your body sins, but you don't. What he's saying is the fight you have is with the fallen remnant of Adamic sin that's in you. Right, and he clearly would consider what we would consider to be desire, sinful. Right, coveting is a sin. But think about it, just about anything you covet, you would covet for some self-referential pleasure you might have. Why do you want it? It's because you think it will give you something. and it won't give you something like in an abstract way, it will actually give you something with regard to your life in this world and the satisfaction of the cares of this world, right? Because all that's in the world, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, boastful pride of life. All of those things are wrapped up in our fallen condition that has this fleshly problem with it. He takes it even a step farther. Look at the end of verse 14. For I am of flesh, but I am of flesh sold into bondage to sin. I don't think the insertion of bondage here is bad, but the Greek word is simply sold into sin. And the reason they've taken bondage is because most of the time it's used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it has to do with selling into slavery. And in fact, the same thing is used in Matthew at the parable about selling someone into slavery. Okay, so I think they're capturing the idea, but it's basically is this, my flesh, and this is the key, I am of flesh having been sold into sin. And here's what I would suggest he's talking about. He's talking about the effects of the fall. When mankind rebelled against God, we moved into a position of bondage to sin. And that bondage has not been completely eliminated yet. We still have a fight that's happening. There is still a battle that's taking place in that regard. And that's what he's talking about here, because depravity infects us all. In fact, look at the end of verse 17. sin which dwells in me, the end of verse 20, sin which dwells in me. So sin actually has a presence within us, hence we talk about indwelling sin. And the flesh has nothing good dwelling in it. Look at verse 18. I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. So he's very specific. Because we are of flesh, there is a law or a principle that evil is present in us, verse 21. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, actually, even when we want to do good. The principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. And that principle is in the members of our body, waging war, making us a prisoner. All right, so let me just sort of do a couple summary things about this principle, because I think it's really important we get this before we try and figure out who this person is, all right? Because that's the next step. The basic point is the power of sin is not in the law, but in the flesh. If I'm looking for the culprit here, and I've got sin there, and I've got the law here, and I've got me, the culprit is not the law. The law is spiritual. The culprit's here. It's in me. I'm of flesh. All right, and we need to get that, because we won't understand what's going on if we're still trying to think of sins out there, the laws out there, and the problems all outside of me. Paul's going, it's an inside job. All right, you have a traitor within, and you need to recognize that. But here's where it's important to see. The issue here is corruption, not creation, right? This is a result of the fall. So when he makes these statements about the flesh, about my members, about this body, the body is dead, he is talking about post-fall human existence, right? This would not be true of Adam before the fall. Adam actually didn't have the effects of the curse on him until he broke the law of God and therefore came under the curse, which brought corruption. And what that keeps us from, something that's haunted the church periodically, and that is, I mentioned it, platonic dualism, a sort of a Greek philosophy that sort of always hovers around because the Bible uses language that does highlight inner person, outer person, It does talk about this world and material things and a spiritual unseen world. And so there's times it sounds like that, but that's not actually what the Greeks were talking about. And it's not what the Bible's talking about when we're dealing with this. He's not saying here, so your body is because it's material, it's evil. Because who had a body before sin was in the world? Adam and Eve. And what did God say about those? They're very good. Who had a body and did not sin? Jesus. The express image of God's person in bodily existence. The problem is not inherent in physical existence. It's the result of the fall, right? There's an infection, if I could put it that way, that is depravity, that has its beachhead in the fact that there's a part of us still that hasn't been fully redeemed. And we won't get there for a good bit. So you'll probably forget what I'm going to say. So I'll just say it right now and we can come back to it later. But drop down to chapter 8 in verse 23. Actually, let's start it in 20 just so you can get the feeling of what's going on here. 8.20. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pain of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." Okay, you see where Paul's going with this? There's a fight that's happening and it's tied to your bodily existence because you actually haven't been resurrected yet. And it's not until the resurrection that you have the final redemption of your body. And so right now is a state of hope for that. And in fact, you hope for something you can't see. When you look at your existence, you don't actually see in the members of your body a full deliverance of God's promise of redemption. You get up every day with the groaning reality that that part of the promise hasn't been delivered yet. Right, and that groaning is part, just being a part of the creation, we're broken, but it's also a part of our fallenness. We experience the ramifications of the fact that we are yet to be redeemed fully. Right now, we're alive in the spirit, but we actually have a real problem still. And that's what he's gonna paint out. That's why he can say what he's saying. That's why he's dealing with it the way he's dealing with it. The body is not inherently evil, but there is a principle at work in it that is operating against us. And what Paul is doing here, and that's why I jump into chapter eight, he's foreshadowing for us at least two things. One is that the law, which is external, cannot solve the problem, which is internal. Right? That's why they're off on it. Because he talked about in chapter seven, the oldness of the letter. Right? And he consistently uses that kind of a phrase, the letter, in passages in the New Testament where he emphasizes the external nature of the law. The law comes and commands us, but it does so from outside. Remember? Run, but it doesn't give me feet. All right, that's what he's trying to see. So folks, if you're going, well, we're saved by grace, but now we're gonna be sanctified by the law, he's going, you're missing something. Your problem's not external. Your problem's still internal. And you need an internal solution. which he's gonna come to in chapter eight, when he says, now in the newness of the spirit, he enables us to do this. And in fact, he leads his children in this, and he groans within us for our redemption of our bodies. So we have no obligation to the flesh to fulfill his desires, but we're supposed to put to death the deeds of the body by the spirit. Right, that's what he's, he's setting up that whole argument by helping us see one solution that simply won't work. The law can't do that. You need the power of God's spirit because of the work of Jesus Christ to see this accomplished. All right, we're gonna take the first step only into the identification of the speaker, all right? Because I know it will not happen clearly if I do it super fast. All right, so I wanna identify the person. I'm gonna do it, I'll give you the big picture, all right? I think we can see in these verses that it is Paul as a representative voice for all of us. It's Paul as a believer, and that's a big decision, because that's the big debate, is he a believer or an unbeliever? I think it's Paul a believer, but it's also Paul as a sinner. And that's what he's communicating to us. And Lord willing, next week we'll see believer and sinner. But let me just show you why I think Paul's speaking as a representative for us. Go back, if you would, to chapter seven. And notice what Paul does, right? In the way he uses, if I could trace you through this, so I talked about the words, the pronouns that Paul uses. All right, look at 7.1. He says, do you not know? And then drop down to verse four. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ. Hopefully not gonna be pedantic, but that's second person, right? You. He's saying, you know this and you were made to die to the law. But look at the end of verse four. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, right, he says, so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that, what would you expect there? You'd expect you. But all of a sudden he goes, we. All right, so Paul's talking about them. You know this, you died to the lost so that you might be joined to another so that we could bear fruit to God. And then he talks about the negative side of it. He's still doing the first person plural. Look at verse five, we were in the flesh. Verse six, now we have been released from the law. And then all of a sudden in verse seven, he jumps to I. and he traces eye through the rest of the way. And this is part of what I was saying to you. He's got to deal with a really tough concept for them that's pretty sensitive, right? He's got a congregation that's divided over the law. We know that from chapter 14 and 15. Right, so he's gonna confront a very sensitive, difficult topic, and he does the kind of thing that you and I would do. You know this, and this is so it could be true of you, and in fact, this is the way it is. Right, we all have this. We were made, we, and then he goes from them to us to me. I, and goes all the way through the rest of the chapter, I, I, I, I, about the battle with sin, because he's not gonna go, and you have this problem, and you have this problem, and he doesn't wanna say we have this problem. He wants to make his point by going, I, I, I, because he's gonna take the bullets in order to get them to identify with the truth so that then he can go back to you. Look at chapter eight, verse two. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son, the likeness of sinful flesh, his offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. Now notice what he does in verse four. so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Right? So here's, we're starting with a conviction that the Bible is the word of God, that it's actually God speaking through Paul and the choice of pronouns is not insignificant. It's actually a part of how he's trying to communicate his message. Hey, I wanna talk to you about a very difficult and sensitive subject, and I wanna make this point. You know something, and this is true, but this is the way it is for all of us as believers, and I'm gonna illustrate that by talking about my own experience of having come to see my dead condition because of the law and my problem with sin, and in fact, here's what I'm like. I am fleshly, and I've got this fight that's happening inside of me. Oh, wretched man that I am, he comes down to. When he starts to get to the solution, he goes, and look what God did for you, right? And specifically what he did for you, he actually takes the law and says, see, it wasn't the law that did that. It was the work of the spirit so that you could actually live the way you're supposed to. In fact, that's what he did for all of us. Right? So he's just trying to sweep them up into this truth and get them to see that this is the gracious way God has dealt with us. Right? And in the midst of it, what he does do is put an ax to the root of at least three things. I didn't prep all the work for it, but let me just tell you what they are. The first is pride. Right, when you read Romans chapter seven, if you come away from it going, I'm pretty good, you need to go back and reread it. Because it actually would lead you to the conclusion, I don't have any hope in myself. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this? Right? And that's a really good thing because pride leads to destruction. Right? God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And so this chapter, while it's tough to work through, it actually humbles us before God. It causes us to recognize that the answer is not in us. You know what also puts the axe to the root of? Perfectionism. Christians thinking that somehow they can live above sin. And that's just not true. As long as you are in the flesh, there is going to be a fight that happens between the spirit and the flesh. There's no place of perfection or semi-perfection. So sometimes when we talk about deeper lives and higher lives and victorious life, we create these false ideas that somehow we have won the battle with sin and we're on a higher plane. And that's not what the scriptures teach about the fight with sin that will last up until you're going to Christ or Christ coming to you. Until you are in your new body, having set free from the presence of sin entirely, there's no perfectionism. We need to not have that kind of misguided thought, which I think does root to our pride again. We want to project that we're better than we are. And the Scriptures don't give us that comfort. There's only one in whom we can boast. It's Christ, not ourselves. But it also lays the ax to the root of pessimism. Because here's what you shouldn't do. You shouldn't read chapter 7 and go, man, stink. I am never going to make it out of this. Because look what he says. Who will set me free? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, Jesus our Lord. Right, so I shouldn't, I have to have a realistic assessment of the fight that I'm in with sin. And a realistic assessment means I'm never gonna get to the point where I've beat it until I see Christ and I'm made like him. For I shall see him as he is. So I'm always gonna have a fight with sin. but God is at work in me. And in fact, in the midst of that fight, he is changing me so that I want what is good. I joyfully concur with it in the inner man. And so there's a work of God that keeps me from despair and pessimism because he who began a good work will continue until the day of Christ. So it's a biblical kind of realism. that's not naive perfectionism or actually sort of self-centered pessimism. Because when I do something sinful, please hear this the right way, okay? But when I do something sinful, the last thought in my mind should be, I can't believe I did that. Man, I'm a sinner. If I think I'm better than sinning, I think I stand when I have to be careful that I could fall. Right? So spiritually, there's a zone in which I live and you live where we're not down below the line of despair, thinking I'm destined to be rotten. No, the Spirit is alive because of Christ and His righteousness. But I'm also not up above a line where I think I can float and I've conquered my battle with sin. I'm good. Somewhere in between those, is the kind of realism that Romans chapter 7 is confronting us with. We desperately need Christ, and Christ is absolutely for us if we've trusted in Him. There's no condemnation. 1. The Spirit is producing in us what the law couldn't. Verse 2. We are actually looking for the full completion of this because the Spirit bears witness in us that we are the children of God. It is not pessimism to be realistic about our sin. It's actually right. And it shifts my hope and confidence away from myself to God through Christ. who does these things for me? That's the answer. Let's pray together. Lord, please help us to work through the text of your word to find truth and hold deeply to it. Let your word shape our understanding of our experience and not our experiences shape our understanding of the word. Lord, we need hope, and we thank you that you've given it to us in Christ. Thank you that the righteousness that ultimately is needed is found in Him, and we can stand in His righteousness with confidence, even as we do battle, wage war with sin in us. Lord, if anyone's come this morning not knowing Christ, I know that this is a complicated text to walk through, but at the center of it is that rejoicing praise, thanks be to God through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Would you draw them to Christ today as their only hope in life and death, acknowledging that they cannot save themselves, that Christ died as a substitute for sinners and will save all who call on his name. Lord, work in their heart this morning to call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, believing in him as the one who is a greater savior than any of our sin. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.